How to Save Flash Animations From Websites

Unlike image files, you can't save Flash animations on websites by right clicking on them. However, that doesn't mean that you can't save them. Here are a few methods for saving Flash animations from websites to your hard drive.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Use the Firefox Internet browser's built-in function to save Flash animations to your hard drive. Load the site that contains the Flash animation that you want. Right click in an open space on the page and click "View Page Info."
2. Click on the "Media" tab in the "View Page Info" menu. You'll see a list of media the page contains, along with a preview window of the media that's selected in the list. Scroll down through the list until you see the flash you want come up in the preview window. Click "Save As" and pick the folder you want to save it in.
3. Do it the hard way in Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer (and any web browser for that matter) will cache media files in its temporary folders. Knowing this, you can browse through your temporary folder and copy the Flash file to a permanent location on your hard drive.
4. Find the location of your temporary folder by opening up the "Tools" menu and clicking on "Internet Options." Go to the "Temporary Internet Files" tab and click on "Settings." You'll see the path of the folder displayed. You can click on "View Files" to open the folder in Windows Explorer.
5. Visit the page containing the Flash file you want in Internet Explorer. Once it has been loaded, go back to the temporary folder and click "Arrange by Date." The most recent files will be from the page you've just loaded, and the flash file will be the one that ends in ".swf" and is labeled "Shockwave Flash Object."
6. Do it the easy way by purchasing and downloading a Flash-saving program. There are a number of them on the Internet, and they will generally add a button to your web browser that allows you to save Flash files with a single click.